First of all: holy shit I did not expect this much positive reception from chapter 1. So, a massive thank you to everyone that hopped on this crazy train already.
Now then, I got some comments to respond to!
ARandomPasserby: That is the golden question ain't it? Given how overtly sexual Taro games have kinda been since Nier, (though Drakengard 1 did have the pedo), there probably will be some stuff. I'm not 100% on that yet, kinda like how the character of Chris is nowhere near ready for that kind of thing right now. You'll see what I mean.
Also the whole reproduction thing 100% could've been interpreted that way, but the other way was that humanity had fallen low enough to start using each other like breeding cattle... robot sex is definitely the better of the two.
Arclight001, PixelatedWriter342: Thanks for giving this story a look. It means a lot to me that my regulars appreciate my writing moreso than just whatever series I do. I hope you enjoy this chapter since nothing like it has popped up in KoG... yet.
Anyways, with all of that out of the way, enjoy!
City Ruins
March 17th, 19945
7:30 A.M
Chris slowly stirred awake in his current residence of a totaled apartment building. He'd used the now empty backpack as a pillow and his jacket as a blanket the past 2 days. Thankfully he was used to doing such a thing already back when he was with…
Chris shot the surging memory down as he stood up, sparing a slight glance to the firearm in his possession. The man walked over to the other side of the room and grabbed a long, sharpened stick that had a vine tied around the end.
He walked out of the room silently, making his way over to his usual breakfast gathering spot.
Chris had walked about ten miles from where Project Arc was and stopped when he found a running river. What surprised him even more were the wild animals running around. Birds, Moose and even giant boar's seemed to be the prominent animals around. None of them even caring enough to recognize him as a threat, given his tall and lithe frame these days, he didn't blame them.
To Chris' relief, on top of a clean water source, this river also had fish. So it only made sense to set up camp not too far from this paradise of survival.
"Alright then." He sighed, pulling off his hoodie and red shirt to reveal the eerily thin and likely malnourished body beneath the clothes. Telltale scars of gunshots and stabs were sporadically placed all over the man's form. Chris took off his boots and socks before rolling up his pant legs and stepping into the water. "COLD!" He took large skip-like steps as he adjusted to the chill of early spring water.
After a moment, he'd adjusted to the temperature. He made sure to keep away from the deeper and rougher part of the water, even in his healthy prime, he wouldn't stand a chance against those rapids. Another reason he kept on the clearer area was due to the fact this river, for some godforsaken reason, had robot fish. He'd lost about five spears to those fuckers.
He eyed a flesh and blood fish and threw the weapon, impaling the creature on the end of the makeshift harpoon. Chris pulled it in with the ivy rope, making sure he didn't lose the tool and, more importantly, the food.
The young man had to use both hands to lift the larger carp he'd stabbed. He placed the dead fish on a cloth and went back to hunting.
After getting another three fish, Chris sat by the riverbank, using a towel he took from the lab to clean his feet. Athlete's Foot and Trench Foot are two things Chris can absolutely do without.
After getting his clothes back on, the man let out a sigh and stretched, a few pops escaped his body along with a groan.
"Alright then, back to base." As he went to tie up the fish, something from the corner of his eyes caught his attention. The young man quickly shot his gaze over to barely see a foot round the corner of a building.
"Hey!" After quickly hiding the fish from any smartass animals, he gave chase. "Wait up damnit!"
He rounded that same corner to only meet a repeated scene of the figure just barely in sight.
"Hold on a minute! I wanna talk!" Chris growled in frustration at being so blatantly ignored. Sound would rebound off these concrete walls quite well, so the person could very obviously hear him.
"You are really starting to piss me off!" He shouted just before he rounded the next corner.
"If you don't stop now, so help me I'll… kick…. your ass…"
The man stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the sight before him, stupefied by what his eyes were perceiving.
Christopher was no longer in a city at least 200 years in the future, he was back home. He was back in Washington.
Giant structures that pierced the heavens gave way to quaint single story houses. Overrun nature stepped back for trimmed green grass and small trees. The grey color dominating his sight in the city was now a wide pallet of white's, blue's, green's, red's and every other color of the rainbow. A faint smell of gasoline hit his nose as a car drove past, it was something he hadn't smelled in years.
Slowly, he stepped forward. Caution lacing every minute movement his body performed. It felt like his synapses were both racing ten times faster and at a standstill, as not a single ounce of his physical being could believe anything before him.
As he slowly pressed forward, he stopped entirely, his heart seizing as he glanced as his reflection in a window.
A disheveled mop of white hair had regressed into neatly trimmed, short brown hair. His porcelain-colored skin had regained its lost pigmentation. The battered and malnourished body had once again regained its muscle, its will, its strength.
Words dare not come out from his mouth, a sense of primal dread thinking this moment would be shattered if he dare speak.
Chris continued forward, immediately recognizing the street as his own. His own house across the street and a few properties over. Without even contemplating anything, he headed straight home. A slow walked turned into a light jog, which itself turned into a sprint. He saw his brother's white truck, his mother's black car, the man didn't even feel the smile on his face rise up, a feeling he'd long forgotten about quickly returning to his being.
He hopped over the white picket fence and raced for the red door. Chris grabbed the fake-gold handle and pushed, only to see… his front lawn.
He blinked in confusion before feeling something in his hand. His gaze shifted down and his eyes resembled saucers as he easily recognized the item in his hand. A blood-covered kitchen knife was firmly grasped in his hand, bits of brain matter and blonde hair were stuck at the end of the blade.
Before he could even register what was happening, he heard it. A song that made his very soul cry out in horror, that damn melody that preceded the genocide of the human race.
Bells rang out in a familiar pattern as the smell of smoke suddenly appeared. Chris shot his gaze up to see the hellscape that followed in the wake of the Legion. Hellfire and brimstone would be a complete understatement for what he saw.
Statues of salt that closely resembled humans littered the area. Whether they were whole, or broken, these things were once upon a time, no different a human from Chris.
The sounds of footfalls, crunching the ground of ashes and salt immediately made Chris freeze. When they stopped, Chris barely had enough control of his body to turn his head.
He wished he hadn't.
Before his eyes, was him. The antichrist given physical form. Death, Suffering and Terror incarnate.
Red Eye.
Chris' head slowly shook back-and-forth as he turned his body and slowly stepped back.
"No. No no no no." He slowly raised his arm to point at the thing in front of him. "You're supposed to be dead! There's no way in hell you're alive!"
An inhuman smile rose on the figure's face, it closer resembled a crescent moon as no teeth broke the clean curvature of white that cut through the black mass's face.
Chris tripped over something and landed on the ground, his legs resting atop the object he tripped on.
His gaze rose up to see that the "thing" he'd tripped over was no mere object. Tears welled in the corners of his eyes as the new object of his attention, was the lifeless corpse of his mother. Her once beautiful and ageless features were twisted into an expression of primordial horror. A gaping hole in her chest leaked the familiar ruby-colored fluid out in quantities no human could ever posses. Chris felt his clothes dampen and the warm liquid cover his skin.
The sound of a beating heart caused him to gaze back up. A pulsating mass of muscle was in the hand of the monster. If it were even possible, it's smile widened even further as it raised its arm up, before crushing the organ into a mass of gore.
Even as his senses were overloaded, Chris needn't even think for more than a moment what that meant. A new emotion swelled in the young man.
Pure, unadulterated rage.
He grabbed the multi-tool he'd been given in his pod and pulled out the knife in it.
"YOU BASTARD!!!"
Chris got up and charged the embodiment of evil, nothing but the intention to kill present.
However, this isn't some kind of story where the villain falls to the enraged heroes vengeance. This was nothing more than a sick, broken insect fighting against a god.
Red Eye backhanded Chris, sending him crashing into a window, blood rushed down his face from a cut atop his head. His knife landing on the ground in front of him.
With that same smile, the figure approached Chris. It bent over and grabbed the knife before pouncing like a predator to prey.
Chris' managed to stop the blade, one hand gripping the handle and his other the blade itself. His limbs trembled as it took all of his strength to resist. Adrenaline raced through the mile of blood vessels in his body, doing all it could as fight was the only option.
He closed his eyes tightly as blood from his hand dropped onto his already red-covered face. When Chris had managed to hold on for far longer than he thought, he found the courage to open his eyes.
What greeted him was one hand gripping the knife blade, while the other was trying to stab himself. He immediately stopped trying to kill himself as he separated his hand from the blade and chucked the item across the street.
He was back in reality.
Pained, quick gasps escaped his lips as his heart hammered his ribs without mercy. The organ legitimately threatening to burst at the rate it was going.
Realizing he was safe, his body slowly came down from its fight high. His breaths became slower, the platelets in his blood stopped the bleeding, his pupils dilated back to normal.
He rested against the short wall he'd thrown himself at, making sure not to stab himself with any of the broken glass on the ground.
Chris sat there, the revelation slowly dawning upon him that something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
Riverbank
March 17th, 19945
10:15 A.M
The quartet of 2B, 9S and their respective pods walked along the riverbank, keeping an eye out for anything unnatural. Initially the duo had been sent here to speak with the Resistance Camp and offer assistance, however after the details of the desert excursion had been given, command called about that mysterious signal.
Once they'd relayed that the signal was in fact of human origin, it was all hands on deck. Their Commander didn't care if they had to turn the entire city inside-out, they must find that human. His image, thankfully in his file downloaded by Pod 042, had been distributed to all pods deployed in the field as search parties scoured the metropolitan ruins.
"Still, it's crazy that the humans on the moon completely forgot about all of them in there." 9S, as usual, examined the situation with his typical curiosity. "It's kinda messed up, don't you think? It's like if command completely abandoned a squadron for no reason."
"Just focus on the mission." 2B bluntly replied.
"Aw, c'mon 2B, I am technically focused on the mission. But you can't tell me that you aren't the least bit curious? I mean this isn't just a human we're talking about. This is a human that was around in the prime of humanity as a whole! Think about the stories he could tell! The places he could describe!" A wide smile made itself very present on the youth's face.
"Those are all things your Pod could tell you. Don't forget they have access to most of the same old information humans did." She responded with a grain of truth.
"That's not the same though. It's like the difference between hearing an abridged second-hand version of an event versus being told about it by someone who was actually there!" He shot back.
The woman sighed, "For now let's just find the human first." She ended the conversation, knowing she'd get nowhere anytime soon. Though she honestly couldn't blame her curious partner, she too was rather interested in this human. 2B would be lying through her teeth if she said she wasn't curious herself.
Neither could ultimately help it, their base programming in regards to humans was to see them with borderline messianic reverence. Some just simply interpreted it differently from others. It was not so different to how the three primal needs of humans influenced then differently. Some valued sex more, others food and some sleep, very rarely did any human treat all three equally.
Not long after their conversation ended, did they find a familiar fishing ground for a human.
9S immediately rushed over, a goofy smile on his face as he examined the various tools present.
"Get a look at this 2B!" He held up the makeshift harpoon. "It looks like the human uses this to hunt fish." The white-haired boy then looked at the ivy lime tied to the opposite end. "Oh I get it! This is to make sure the current doesn't take the tool and food away! Human's really are as clever as I thought!" While the android was having a field day looking over their findings, his partner reported in to command.
"Ah, 2B! Is there something I can help you with?" Operator unit 6 excitedly spoke to the woman.
"Unit 9S and myself have discovered what is likely the area where the human hunts for food, sending coordinates now." At that, the pod sent over the neccessary data.
"Recieved! I'll make extra sure to get this to everyone! Keep up the good work!" The blonde smiled behind her veil.
"Roger that, 2B out." She ended the call and turned her attention back to 9S, the latter currently directing his curiosity at a towel.
It was going to be a long day.
City Ruins
March 17th, 19945
12:35 P.M
Once the shellshock had worn off and his body decided to fire on all cylinders again, Chris shakily stood up.
He grabbed the multi-tool and pocketed it again, attempted suicide aside, he still needed it if he wanted to keep going.
That thought made the broken man chuckle darkly, all the if's and maybe's have done nothing more than prove how much of a damn coward he still is. It took a Post-Traumatic Stress induced episode for him to even hurt himself, let alone try and jam a goddamn knife through his eye.
The man supposed it was just god's idea of a sick joke, breaking his will to this degree but making sure he still wouldn't willingly end himself. A part of Chris wanted to justify this by saying he had to live on for his family, but he knew that was a damn lie. He had nothing left in this world. Anything he ever knew and loved is long gone by now.
Was it his fate to roam these empty plains forevermore? A mere spectre of the past this world no longer acknowledges. Given his current white and frail appearance, he supposed it was rather appropriate.
As he slowly walked back to where his food was, the sound of sparks grasped his ear. Chris turned to see the dim light coming from a dumpster that had the plastic lid broken apart.
Chris peeked through the hole to find… some weird robot thing. He blinked a few times in a blend of confusion and curiosity.
A robot? In this kind of environment? Were there still people around? Had the doctor perhaps gotten his facts wrong?
"More importantly: what the hell are you?" He scowled at the blue-colored robot.
"Acknowledge. Unit Designation is Pod 211. This unit is the property of YoRHa-" The robot was cut off by the human.
"Whoa whoa whoa, slow down will ya?" Chris waved his good hand in front of himself. "First of all, what the hell is a Pod. Secondly, how did the property of some organization end up in the dumpster?"
"Request acknowledged. A Pod is a companion to a YoRHa android. Pod's provide tactical assistance in combat or practical uses. This Pod was injured in a battle against machines and the android designated to this pod has died. Moreover, this pod has received major circuitry damage and can not contact command or other pod models." The robot responded quickly and simply to the man.
"… There's a lot to unpack there I don't even wanna get into right now." He sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"Proposal. This pod shall provide assistance to the android in return for being sent back to YoRHa as soon as possible." It attempted to bargain with him, something Chris didn't even know robots could do.
"Let's get one thing straight pal, I am not an android." He raised up the cut hand and pointed to his blood-smeared face, "Androids do not bleed red blood cells. Androids bleed… I dunno, robo juice." He rolled his eyes. "Point is, I'm a flesh and blood human. And this flesh and blood human really doesn't have the time to-"
"Inquiry. The unit in front of this pod is human?" It spontaneously spoke up.
"Well no shit dumbass, why would I lie about being a meat sack?" He chided the contraption.
The device remained silent for a moment before speaking again.
"Proposal amendment. This pod shall assist the designated human indefinitely."
"Huh? Wouldn't you guys have some kind of designated partner guideline or something?" He raised a brow of suspicion.
"Acknowledged. Pod's are designated to specific units and are normally incapable of transferring to another user independently. However, YoRHa guidelines prioritize the health and wellbeing of humanity above all else, as such these protocalls can be overridden."
Knowing he definitely wouldn't gain any ground in an argument against… a hyper advanced calculator of some kind, Chris relented with a sigh.
"Fine. Can you get out?"
"Negative. This pod's flight chip has been damaged and 90% of articulation has been lost in left arm."
The man put a hand to his chin and looked around. He couldn't simply jump in, grab it and jump out, the wound on his hand was not worth the risk of infection. Especially with no real medical personnel anywhere nearby as far as he knew.
"Can you still grab with those big arms?"
"Affirmative."
Chris nodded and walked over to the other side of the alley, a large piece of rebar lay on the ground. He squatted down and lifted the pole with his good hand.
"Inquiry. Is human capable of lifting this pod with one arm?" The robotic voice echoed from the rusted steel trap.
"Don't need to be." He simply spoke as he raised the lids and placed the pole inside. "Grab on." When the pod complied, he simply used the leverage of the remaining pole with the dumpster serving as an apt fulcrum.
Very easily the robot was lifted from the dumpster.
"Grab onto the edge of it."
The robot secured itself, free of the pole and was now shoulder-level with the six-and-a-half foot man.
Chris pointed to the hood sticking out from above the jacket.
"Grab onto that, wrinkle the jacket and I'll make you into scrap." He coldly threatened the machine.
It easily complied as Chris had to temporarily adjust to the weight.
"Alright then, let's get going." He huffed and started heading back.
"Inquiry. Where is the designated human going?"
"First off: it's Chris, not "designated human"." He mocked the robot with a bad impression. "Secondly, we're going to my fishing spot before heading back to base."
"Proposal. All Pod's are equipped with a fishing feature. Once repaired, this pod is capable of fishing as much as you need."
"Huh, I'll keep that in mind." He nodded as they arrived at a familiar riverbank. "By the way, I got a question for ya Pod."
"Acknowledged."
"What year is it?"
"The current year is 19945 A.D."
City Ruins
March 17th, 19945
2:30 P.M
As the search continued for the human, the androids got some worrying news. 2B and 9S arrived at the scene, some other androids already present.
The group stared at the ground in front of a window, shattered glass and a red liquid dressed the grass.
"Can we confirm that this is human blood?" 9S inquired.
"Yeah, we had 3 different pods run tests and cross reference with old data. Three different cell types were found, all of which line up with a mammal." 32G, a gunner unit, scowled at the sight.
"Do we know if it was fatal?" 2B immediately asked.
"Based off of old data, this is far from enough blood loss to kill a human. However…" 15H, a healer unit, awkwardly paused.
"However what?" The curious boy asked.
"According to old data, humans are incredibly susceptible to bacterial infection should an open wound be contaminated. In this event, the white blood cells fight off the infection. However, given that this human has been frozen for 9000 years, I doubt his entire body is gonna be raring to go so soon." The healer unit grimly spoke.
"So we need to pick up the pace!" 9S spoke with clear determination.
"Fortunately, with this and the earlier map data, we were able to narrow down the range where he might possibly be right now." 32G looked at the map displayed on her visor.
"Then let's get a move on, we need to find him before the machines do." 2B ended the discussion as everyone ran off the search the area.
"Hey 2B." Her partner got her attention.
"What is it?"
"Do you think he's gonna take all this well? I mean being frozen for almost ten thousand years, that's gotta do some damage." He was plainly concerned for the human he'd never even met.
"I don't know, but we need to hurry."
"Right!" He nodded as they picked up the pace.
Riverbank
March 17th, 19945
1:10 P.M
"HAHAHAHAHA!!!" A cackle tore past the lips of the human. He clutched his sides as tears rolled down his cheeks. The pod didn't even know how to respond, so it remained silent.
"Oh man! I needed that!" He wiped the tears from his face, a dopey smile stretching his lips.
"Inquiry. What does human model Chris mean?"
"I had my suspicions that I was out for a while, but MAN, almost 10000 years was not what I expected." 100 years or 10000, neither made any difference to him. "It actually explains a lot. This city I don't know, the advanced tech, the endless days… okay maybe I could use more info about that." He shrugged and hoisted the bundle of food from its hiding spot before beginning his trek back to base.
"Inquiry. Why does human model Chris not seek out YoRHa?" The blue tech asked him.
"Oh yeah, what the hell is YoRHa? I garnered it was some kind of organization from the way you talked about em', but that's it."
"Answer. YoRHa is an elite military force of androids tasked by the Council of Humanity to reclaim earth from the machines."
The man stopped in his tracks, "The fuck is a Council of Humanity?" He made a disgusted face at that painfully stereotypical name.
"Answer. The Council of Humanity are the leading remnants of humanity that fled to the moon after the alien invasion in 5012 A-"
"Hold the fucking phone!" He immediately stopped the robot. "Ali-. ALIENS. As in small, grey, big black eyes, huge head and abduct cows before anal probing. Those nearly caused us to go extinct?!"
"Affirmative."
"… I take it back, we were better off as salt." He groaned. "Anyways, so not only did they go to the moon, but they also conveniently forgot I existed?! That the other people with me existed?!" Legitimate anger seeped his words. A sigh escaped his lips, "Anyways, before I pop a blood vessel, so these things that were made to kill us, these machines, what kind of threat are they?"
The teen assumed since fully autonomous androids were now the military and flying robots were possible, then military tech back in 5000 must've been insane. So for these guys to curb stomp that? That was… worrying to say the least.
"Answer-"
"Before you continue, for the love of god, just answer or ask questions without having to say you're doing something. I'm not deaf." He stopped the robot.
"Affirmi- Very well." It conceded. "The Machines, combined with the alien's own technology, proved to be an insurmountable obstacle for mankind. As such, they fled and left behind androids with the orders to reclaim earth."
"Wow, that's rather scummy, and this is coming from me." The murderer was surprised by the lack of guts from his species, but also wasn't completely dumbstruck. "Anyways, so if I'm getting this right, humanity fled to the moon, told their androids to die for them to retake the planet in a plan that hasn't progressed in nearly 7000 years and while millions of androids die, they just chill on the moon and act like everything is fine."
"Correct."
"Sounds like nothing has changed." He spat out as they arrived at his base.
Chris placed the machine down and walked over to where a first-aid kit was. Sitting down he opened the box and uncapped a small bottle of alcohol. He would have a bigger one, except some selfish bastards decided chugging the stuff would lead to a quick and painless death back in the lab.
He opened another bottle of clean water and ran it over the wound first. With no soap and warm water, this would have to do. Chris hissed in pain as then applied alcohol disinfected the wound.
With that done, he opened a pair of small bags for a sterilized needle and surgical thread. Threading a needle with one hand was as hard as one would expect, but Chris managed it through previous experience.
He let out a sigh and began stitching the wound close, grunting each time he pierced the flesh and ran the thread through the skin. After a moment, he'd finished and wrapped the wound in gauze.
Testing the articulation of his hand with a satisfied nod, he walked over and grabbed the pod, bringing it to where the supplies were.
"I got your first job for me Pod." He gestured to the wound atop his head. "Gonna need ya to stitch that for me... you do know how to do that right?"
"My data banks have such information in them."
"I'll take that as a yes." He rolled his eyes and cleaned the wound again. "Okay," he threaded the needle for the robot, "I'm gonna lift you up and you handle the rest."
"Affirmative."
Through a smidge of trial and error, the pod managed to close the glass cut quite well. Chris placed him back on he ground after that was done.
"Pod, what time is it?"
"1:45 P.M."
"… I'm going to bed."
The Bunker
March 18th, 11945
2:33 A.M
YoRHa's Commander, A.K.A White, was currently sitting in a chair of the mess she called a room. Discarded outfits littering the floor. If robots produced a smell, one would probably assume this was a teenage man's room given the state it was in. Though the woman had been having a wild week. Living life for the purpose of serving humanity only to be told they were exitinct was rough enough, but to then find out a genuine article is alive and well even after all these years? That's a new kind of stress inhibitor.
Her programming, her very soul, screamed at her to help and do whatever she possibly could to protect this human. This person she doesn't know of outside of a mere picture. A part of her even demanded she go back to the old days and go out onto the field personally, however she knew those days are long past her.
The woman's nearly nude, curvaceous body slouched in the chair as she lived in a cycle of newfound hope and stress, constantly fighting with each other in her mind. All she wanted was to keep the human safe. It was all any android ever truly wanted. To appease any need of their creators and to be appreciated, to know their sacrifice, their struggles were for a true cause.
She somewhat worried that this may develop into a serious case of overprotective desires from all the androids, but that was a bridge they'd cross once they got there first.
Another bridge she'd soon have to cross was the issue of Christopher being the sole surviving human. Would the androids still dutifully fulfill their task of protecting him even if they learned humanity was never on the moon? It would alleviate the need to produce E-type models and having to use memory erasure on other units. Those resources could be used elsewhere to further the war efforts.
Should she leave that decision to the human? After all, by proxy he was the true leader of YoRHa now as there was a real Council... of one person.
The woman rubbed her temples and sighed, ultimately deciding to leave such things until later. For now, they needed to find the human, and fast.
The door to her room rushed open as 6O ran in.
"Commander! We found... the… human…" The helpless lesbian stared at the outline of White's shapely body with a perverted gaze.
The woman coughed to get the attention of the other android, "Very well then. Now please leave my room at once!" She barked at the other blonde.
Ruined Motel
March 18th, 11945
2:25 A.M
Chris' eyes shot open as he heard the crunching of glass outside. A trap he'd set up to alert him of any approaching things. He immediately got to his feet and hid the Pod before taking cover himself, revolver at the ready.
"You're sure this is where he is?" 9S spoke outside the building as he and 2B approached.
"Affirmative. This location is the optimal spot given its geographic position in relation to the river." Pod 153 explained.
"Alright then, stay alert-" As the woman marched forward, she stepped on pieces of broken glass. Her eyes shot down as she recognized the crystalized sand was practically everywhere in front of the building.
"An alarm system?! Man this human really thinks of everything!" 9S smiled as the duo of androids stepped around the glass carefully, unaware their target was awake and alert already.
"Split up." 2B simply spoke as she disappeared around a corner.
"Stay here, we don't know if he could try to escape." The boy made his pod wait at the entrance.
9S went for the first door on the right, but stopped when a clicking sound filled his senses.
"Alright pal, I'm gonna make this nice and simple. Who the hell are you and why the hell are you here?" Chris coldly stared at the android, the barrel of the gun a mere inch from his temple.
"I'm 9S. I'm an android with YoRHa." The android calmly spoke.
"And how can I be sure you aren't a machine." He questioned the individual in front of him.
"Hey! I'm nothing like-"
BANG
A round fired mere millimeters above his head, smoke exited the barrel as Chris didn't even flinch from firing a .44. Though the ringing in his ears wasn't pleasant.
"I'm gonna ask this again and for the last time. How do I know you aren't a machine?" His words spoke with a finality 9S needn't explained with words. The human next to him was not afraid to sully his hands.
"I have a Pod. It can confirm it for me."
"We'll use mine, I can't trust your word at face value." He gestured for the android to pace right in front of him as they went to the other end of the room. 9S didn't question where the hell this human got a pod.
"Open that drawer." He ordered the android who readily complied, exposing the damaged blue machine. "Pod, confirm whether or not this guy is an android."
"Scanning… Scan complete. The unit in front of human unit Chris is YoRHa model 9S, a Scanner type."
"See! I wasn't lying!" He gazed with a grin to the human who lowered the gun.
"It appears so. By the way, tell your friend over there she can ease off. I could feel her bloodlust over here." He holstered the weapon casually.
"How did- 2B!" He cried out to the woman who emerged from the door. "He wasn't gonna hurt me!"
"No I totally would have if you were a machine." He corrected the boy.
"Not helping!"
The woman silently joined the duo.
"So, you two are androids made by humanity eh?" He examined them closely.
"Yup! I'm 9S and this is 2B!" He gestured to the woman who simply nodded at him.
Chris stared at the duo before nodding and crossing his arms.
"… Hot androids? Yup, you're definitely a product of mankind."
As expected their meeting is off to a fine start.
Hi! Welcome back to another chapter of this mess! Lots of things happened so let's just get to it.
Alright. Guys. I think Chris may have an underlying issue or two... or fifteen. That hallucination scene was a lot of fun to write. Red Eye is definitely a force of nature I can't not address in this story. They're literally responsible for dooming mankind after all. Also, probably another biblical reference kinda like the few I made mention of in the first chapter. The Crusaders use the drug named after Lucifer to fight against the antichrist that doomed humanity. And if Red Eye is Caim, then it's the antichrist who's searching for the beast of the Apocalypse.
Regardless, there were also a few hints in that scene to some key events and things in his life. The very obvious one is very important down the line, so keep it stored in memory for now.
From the start I wanted to give Chris a pod. Mostly because A. it gives him a banter partner on-hand anytime. B. he really ain't fit to be fighting. C. It let me put in another philosopher reference, which makes 3 so far. Honestly this new one legitimately shocked me that they weren't mentioned in the game, but I guess that would've been too easy.
Finally, (almost) all the main protagonists meet. It wasn't under the best conditions mind you, but I doubt anyone would blame Chris for being as cautious as he was. Lord help 2B and Chris as they deal with 9S asking a new question every 5 seconds.
Also that last line was 100% a joke I made playing Automata for the first time. Of fucking course androids would be hot just to spite the shitty-looking machines... and then robo cocoon baby and robo rib baby happen. God this game is fucking out there.
Next chapter will contain our heroes traveling to what is essentially Chris' only safe haven on the northern hemisphere of the planet.
Until next time, I bid you all adieu.